writer’s brick

July 23, 2002 &bull site

One of the reasons why I’m not a good creative writer is that I suffer from what I call “writer’s brick.” No, that’s not a typo — I don’t mean writer’s block I mean writer’s brick. Writer’s brick occurs when a person writes using, you guessed it, a “brick” rather than a “stream.” (For the young, impressionable readers: don’t take my theory of creative writing too seriously. I’m really just making it up.) When one uses the “stream” method he or she writes as the ideas flow, letting them develop during the writing process. In short, a stream writer takes risks.

A brick writer, however, has to analyze, control, and contain his or her words. A self-contained brick must be placed on the page with the beginning, middle, and end all in the writer’s mind when the first word is written. The brick writer often asks, “How will I be able to write about X without Y? Even if I am somehow able to get Y, I’m sure that it would require Z, which I’ll never be able to figure out, so what’s the point?” Well, the point is that if all you do is shit bricks on a page you will only end up with tepid, boring material. This is my dilemma. I like to write, but I’m afraid I’m a brick writer.

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